Conservatives are once again outraged over something they either made up or were easily fooled into believing.
Recently, an image has been making rounds on the internet depicting the mascots from Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal—only something is different.
In the viral image, Pop—the purple-haired elven mascot for the popular cereal—is shown with long hair, prominent eyelashes and rosy cheeks.
Along with this image came a spoof CNN headline claiming cereal conglomerate Kellogg's made Pop a transgender woman.
Conservatives, rather than seeing through the image as an obvious hoax, expressed outrage over the idea of Pop being transgender and blamed the change on millennial" woke" culture.
Pop has NOT been made transgender by Kellogg's, and the outrage conservatives are displaying is, once again, due to their own conspiracy theories.
According to several fact-checking websites, the image first appeared on the far-right message board 4-chan.
Still, conservatives are choosing to die on this hill and continue to attack Kellogg's for a hoax they made up.
Kellogg's spokesperson Kris Bahner confirmed the story is indeed false.
They said:
“We have made no changes to the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap, Crackle and Pop."
While Kellogg's has not made Pop trans, they did celebrate Pride month in 2021 with "Together with Pride"—a limited-edition cereal.
This campaign also drew criticism from conservatives.
NewsMax host Grant Stinchfield went on a homophobic tirade against the campaign, but seemed more obsessed with the sexuality of a cartoon leprechaun.
He said:
“General Mills has, I think General Mills has a gay leprechaun, right?”
“Well, my producer Carly asked me, ‘Is that leprechaun really gay?’ I said I don’t know, maybe: he wears high-heeled shoes, prances around in tights, leads me to believe, probably, that little Lucky Charm leprechaun might be gay.”
Stinchfield tried to suggest General Mills beat out Kellogg's by making the Lucky Charms leprechaun gay.
He said:
“The cereal is Rainbow hearts, covered in edible glitter. How nice."
“Give me a break. Here’s the worst part, the cereal slogan, ‘Too amazing to put into a box,’ and then lists a space for kids to write in their own pronouns. Seriously.”
He continued:
“For those of you that want to vilify me for those comments right, right there, aren’t you just as offended by the flamboyant rainbow hearts and glitter as a symbol of gayness? See, there are two standards here.”
Twitter users are howling over conservatives being mad over a conspiracy theory they started.
Kellogg's has not announced their intention to change the Rice Krispies mascots in any way.
